a Venetian vessel, commonly used in the Adriatic, built with a square stern, and without any fore-mast, having only a main-mast, mizen-mast, and bow-sprit.

TRIGHT, or TERROR, a sudden and violent degree of fear. See Fear.

Sudden fear is frequently productive of very remarkable effects upon the human system. Of this many instances occur in medical writings.—In general, the effects of terror are a contraction of the small vessels and a repulsion of the blood in the large and internal ones; hence proceed a suppression of perspiration, a general oppression, trembling, and anguish of the heart, and lungs overcharged with blood.

Frights often occasion incurable diseases, as epilepsy, stupor, madness, &c. In acute diseases, they have evidently killed many, by the agitation into which they have thrown the spirits, already too much disordered. We have also accounts of persons absolutely killed by terrors when in perfect health at the time of receiving the shock from them: people ordered to be executed, but with private orders for a reprieve, have expired at the block without a wound.—Out of many instances of the fatal effects of fear recorded in writers, the following is selected as one of the most singular.

"George Grochantzy, a Polander, who had enlisted as a soldier in the service of the king of Prussia, deserted during the last war. A small party was sent in pursuit of him; and when he least expected it, they surprized him singing and dancing among a company of peasants, who were got together in an inn and were making merry. This event, so sudden and unforeseen, and at the same time so dreadful in its consequences, struck him in such a manner, that, giving a great cry, he became at once altogether stupid and insensible, and was seized without the least resistance. They carried him away to Glocau, where he was brought before the council of war, and received sentence as..." a defterter. He suffered himself to be led and disposed of at the will of those about him, without uttering a word, or giving the least sign that he knew what had happened or would happen to him. He remained immovable as a statue wherever he was placed, and was wholly passive with respect to all that was done to him or about him. During all the time that he was in custody, he neither ate, nor drank, nor slept, nor had any evacuation. Some of his comrades were sent to see him; after that he was visited by some officers of his corps and by some priests; but he still continued in the same state, without discovering the least signs of sensibility. Promises, entreaties, and threatenings, were equally ineffectual. The physicians who were consulted upon his case were of opinion, that he was in a state of hopeless idiocy. It was at first suspected, that those appearances were feigned; but these suspicions necessarily gave way, when it was known that he took no sustenance, and that the involuntary functions of nature were in great measure suspended. After some time they knocked off his fetters, and left him at liberty to go whither he would. He received his liberty with the same insensibility that he had showed upon other occasions: he remained fixed and immovable; his eyes turned wildly here and there without taking cognizance of any object, and the muscles of his face were fallen and fixed like those of a dead body. Being left to himself, he palled 20 days in this condition, without eating, drinking, or any evacuation, and died on the 20th day. He had been sometimes heard to fetch deep sighs; and once he rushed with great violence on a soldier, who had a mug of liquor in his hand, forced the mug from him, and having drank the liquor with great eagerness, let the mug drop to the ground.

When a person is affected with terror, the principal endeavour should be to restore the circulation to its due order, to promote perspiration, and to allay the agitation of the patient. For these purposes he may drink a little warm liquor, as camomile-tea, &c. the feet and legs may be put into warm water, the legs rubbed, and the camomile-tea repeated every six or eight minutes; and when the skin is warm, and there is a tendency to perspiration, sleep may be promoted by a gentle opiate.

But frights have been known not only to cause, but also to cure, diseases. Mr Boyle mentions agues, gout, and sciatica, cured by this means.

To turn from the serious to the ludicrous effects of fear, the following instance of the latter sort, quoted from a French author by Mr Andrews in his volume of Anecdotes, shows upon what slight occasions this passion may be sometimes excited in a very high degree, even in persons the most unlikely to entertain such a guest. "Charles Gustavus (the successor of Christiana of Sweden) was besieging Prague, when a boor of most extraordinary village desired admittance to his tent; and being allowed entrance, offered, by way of amusing the king, to devour a whole hog of one hundred weight in his presence. The old general Konigsmarc, who stood by the king's side, and who, soldier as he was, had not got rid of the prejudices of his childhood, hinted to his royal master that the peasant ought to be burnt as a sorcerer. 'Sir,' said the fellow, irritated at the remark, 'if your majesty will but make that old gentleman take off his sword and his spurs, I will eat him immediately before I begin the hog.' General Konigsmarc (who had, at the head of a body of Swedes, performed wonders against the Austrians, and who was looked upon as one of the bravest men of the age) could not stand this proposal, especially as it was accompanied by a most hideous and preternatural expansion of the frightful peasant's jaws. Without uttering a word, the veteran suddenly turned round, ran out of the court, and thought not himself safe until he had arrived at his quarters; where he remained above 24 hours locked up securely, before he had got rid of the panic which had so severely affected him."

Fear (Dr Beattie observes) should not rise higher than to make us attentive and cautious; when it gains an ascendancy in the mind, it becomes an infupportable tyranny, and renders life a burden. The object of fear is evil; and to be exempt from fear, or at least not enslaved to it, gives dignity to our nature, and invigorates all our faculties. Yet there are evils which we ought to fear. Those that arise from ourselves, or which it is in our power to prevent, it would be madness to despise, and audacity not to guard against. External evils, which we cannot prevent, or could not avoid without a breach of duty, it is manly and honourable to bear with fortitude. Insensibility to danger is not fortitude, no more than the incapacity of feeling pain can be called patience; and to expose ourselves unnecessarily to evil is worse than folly, and very blamable presumption. It is commonly called fool-hardiness; that is, such a degree of hardiness or boldness as none but fools are capable of. See the article Fortitude.